Problems
by Gemini Star01
Summary: It's just a normal night, camped out in the Digital World, when Kouichi suddenly collapses. His friends search for the problem, but to no avail. Will he wake up? (will continue if I get ideas...)


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Heh…It's been a while since I started anything Digimon. This is just a one-shot, but it's my first one for Frontier, so it should be kinda interesting. Don't worry, I'm still working on my other fics, even though Lost is on hiatus.

This particular fic is something I thought of watching the Frontier episodes this morning on ABC. As a note, this is as far as I have seen, although I've done extensive research on this season and know all about what's going to happen, which is what I've got this based on. No particular time, just after they beat Cherubimon. And no, they're not on the moon during this.

I use American names. Once again, so sue me. I can't remember Tommy's anyway, so get over it.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon…Gee, it's been a long time since I've written that. But anyway, I don't own it, although having a sweet cutie like Kouichi around would be nice…

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A Problem 

"Kouichi?"

The dark-haired boy looked up, a bit startled, and nearly dropped the food he was carrying. Zoe was standing in front of him, a few golden-brown meat apples in her arms. "Oh…yes?"

The blonde girl cocked her head. "You okay? You look kinda…down."

"I'm just a bit tired, that's all." he gave her a bit of a smile.

"Okay then." she smiled back. "Come on, let's hurry and get more of these meat apples. Wouldn't want Koji and Takuya beating us back to camp, right?"

Kouichi nodded a bit, crossing to another tree to pick some more 'meat-tasting rabbit food' as J.P. put it. He plucked a few out of the branches, adding them to his load, keeping track to make sure he got a number divisible by six so each of them got an even amount.

There was a sudden sharp, piercing pain in his chest. He let out a short gasp and dropped the apple he was holding.

"Kouichi?" Zoe looked up. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"It's nothing…" he sighed, reaching down to pick up the dropped fruit. "Just a little…ugh…"

His load tumbled to the ground as he clutched his chest, stumbling back. His chest roared with an almost unbearable pain, he let out a strangled gasp and dropped to his knees.

"Kouichi!" Zoe cried, seeing him fall. She dropped the apples she was carrying, rushing to her friend's aide.

He was gasping for every little breath, arms wrapped around himself, sweat popping out visibly on his forehead. She put an hand his shoulder, trying to support him worriedly. "What's wrong? What's happening?!"

"I-I don't…know…" Kouichi gasped, looking up at her. "It…hurts…Zoe, I can't breathe!"

He took in a stuttering breath and fell over, onto her. Zoe let out a gasp and steadied him, gathering the unconscious form into her lap. "Kouichi, hang on!" she cried, the called into the near-darkness. "Koji! Takuya! Somebody, help!"

Takuya and Koji were collecting firewood when they heard her. Thinking that they'd been attacked, they dropped their loads and ran through the trees at top speed.

"Zoe!" Takuya shouted, catching sight of her against the dark.

Koji's eyes widened in shock as they got closer. "Kouichi!" he gasped, rushing to his new-found brother. "What happened?!"

"I don't know!" Zoe was almost in tears. "He's gotta be sick or something! He just collapsed!"

Takuya, being unable to think of anything else to do, pressed two fingers to the vein up the side of Kouichi's neck. "Man, his pulse is going crazy!"

Koji lifted his brother out of Zoe's lap, pulling one arm over his shoulders. "Takuya, give me a hand here! We've gotta get him back to camp!"

Takuya nodded and supported Kouichi's other side. They carried him through the trees, Zoe hurrying right behind them. Tommy and J.P., who had stayed back to tend the fire, leapt up from their duties as the others burst in.

"Hey, what's goin' on?" J.P. asked. "What's with Kouichi?"

"He's sick." Koji said bluntly, and they lowered him down to lie under a large tree. He writhed and moaned a bit, sweat still pouring off him in gallons.

"Oh dear…" Bokomon whispered. "He looks awful!"

Tommy came forward and pressed a hand to Kouichi's forehead. "He doesn't have a fever." he muttered, looking up. "Whattya think is wrong with him?"

"I don't know…" Koji muttered, sitting next to his brother. He was quiet a moment, looking down at him as Takuya and Zoe filled the other two in. He dropped his voice down to a whisper. "Just hang in there…Kouichi…"

Zoe produced a bottle of water from…somewhere. "Koji, lemmie see your bandana." he nodded, untying the striped cloth and handing it to her. She dumped some water onto it, soaking it through, then folded it into fourths and pressed it to Kouichi's forehead.

She looked up. "Even if he doesn't have a fever, this should at least make him feel better. Now we just have to…wait."

The whole group fell silent, except for the struggling sick man. Then Takuya let out an aggravated noise. "Dang it, what in the world's wrong with him?!"

"You know…" J.P. sighed. "This looks just like a heart attack I saw on a medical show once…"

"Heart attack?!" Tommy gasped.

"Don't even joke!" Zoe snapped.

"Look, it's just something we should consider, okay?!" J.P. raised his hands in defense. "I mean, for all we know the kid's got a heart problem and forgot to take his meds or something!"

"…No…" Koji whispered. "It's not that. There's…something else wrong…"

~ * ~ * ~

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He felt the flannel sheets wrapped over and around him, his nose filled with the scents of antibiotics and various different medicines. His own breath breathing was echoed in plastic, heavy and wounded. If he strained his not-completely-closed eyes he could see the black shapes moving against the white-hot light. He heard voices, yelling around him, unfamiliar and panicked.

"Hurry, his pulse rate is increasing!"

"Get a defibrillator in here, stat! I think we're gonna need it!"

"The beat is getting softer, we're losing him!"

"Come on kid, hang in there!"

He tried to move, but he couldn't. His brain raced in confusion as the pains grew sharper and stronger. 

"What's happening to me?!" he tried to scream. "Wh-Where am I?! Where're the others…?! Takuya? Zoe?! Koji! Koji, help me!…Please, someone, help me!!"

The pain struck, sharper than ever. He wanted to scream, but his body remained still, not even struggling under it all. There was a new, more familiar sound from beside him…a woman crying.

"Kouichi…" she whispered, sobbing. "Please, don't go…Kouichi, don't leave me!"

The shock hit him like a dull blade, slicing through the pain. He tried to reach out to her, tried to call out… "M-Mom…Mama…Stop crying…Please, Mom!"

"His pulse is stabilizing! I think he's gonna pull through!"

"Get that thing back on-line, NOW! We can NOT have another accident like this again…"

~ * ~ * ~

The group held their breaths expectantly, watching over him with worry. It was painful to watch, he'd been moaning and writhing for nearly and hour now. Even Patamon, hovering near Bokomon and Naemon, was whimpering with suppressed worry.

Kouichi suddenly let in one long, stuttering breath, then his body went slack. He gasped still, but no longer in pain, as though he'd been crushed by something that had been removed just in time. He shifted, moving a bit closer to Koji, then let out a painless breath.

"Kou-ee-chi?" Patamon asked tentitvely, drawing out the name in hope.

"…Mama…" the boy whispered, so quietly the others wondered if they had misheard him, but they didn't think on it long as his eyes suddenly fluttered open.

They let out their breath all at once. "Kouichi!" Zoe sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness!"

"Oh, man! He's awake!" Takuya cheered.

Kouichi blinked once, then sat up a moment. But he didn't get to far before his head started to spin and he dropped back down, practically in Koji's lap. He let out a soft groan.

"Don't push yourself too much." Koji warned, shifting so to make his brother more comfortable.

"…What happened?" Kouichi muttered, feeling disoriented.

"Don'tcha remember?" Tommy perked up.

"You passed out on us, buddy." Takuya added. "We thought you were havin' a heart attack or something!"

"Heart…attack?"

"Speaking of which…" J.P. leaned forward pointedly. "Be honest with us, okay? Do you have a heart condition or something?"

"J.P.!" Zoe exclaimed.

"Hey, if he doesn't have one, there's no harm in me asking!" he justified. "And if he _does_ it'd be nice to know what to do if he collapses again!"

Kouichi pushed against the ground with one hand, gripping Koji's jacket with the other hand to pull himself up to a sitting position. Once again, he nearly fell over.

"I _told_ you to take it easy!" Koji chastised, leaning him up against the tree so he could at least sit. "You're gonna kill yourself if you keep this up!"

"…Not that I know of…" Kouichi sighed softly.

Koji raised an eyebrow. "What did you say?"

"…A heart condition…" he muttered. "I don't think…I have one. I don't know what happened. I just feel so…tired…"

"You're probably just sick, that's all." Zoe soothed, reaching over to pat him on a shoulder. "Just lie down. I bet you'll feel better in the morning…"

~ * ~ * ~

Two and a half hours later, Koji woke in the middle of the dark to find Kouichi missing. The place he'd been sleeping was empty, save the green shirt he'd been wearing over the rest of his outfit.

He sat up, about to panic, when he saw his twin sitting on the edge of a small cliff near the remains of their campfire. He seamed to be staring at the unfamiliar stars.

Koji stood and picked the shirt off the ground. He crossed to Kouichi, who was a bit surprised when he set it back over his shoulders. "You'll get sick for real, sitting out in the cold like that."

Kouichi let a small grin cross his features, pulling the shirt farther around himself. Kouji sat next to him, looking up. "What're you looking at, anyway?"

"Nothing, really." the other shrugged. "I was just…thinking about mom…"

Koji raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. His brother continued. "Back there…I heard her…I heard mom. And she was crying…again…"

"Are you sure you heard her?" Koji asked. "I mean, it wasn't just a memory or something? Things like that are supposed to happen…"

"No…She was crying over me…" Kouichi looked up at the moon, a curved scythe in the middle of the sky. He was quiet a moment, but the look on his face betrayed that something was bothering him. "Koji…What's wrong with me?"

"…I don't know." Koji sighed, gazing off seriously. "But don't worry…We'll find out."

~ * ~ OWARI ~ * ~

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Er…okay, if you couldn't figure out what was happening, it's pretty simple…Kouichi's body is in the hospital in the real world, correct? Well, there was a problem with some of the life support equipment, and the sudden shock made his heart convulse in a kind of attack, seeing as, without a soul, it couldn't function properly on its own. His consciousness, in the Digital World, was affected by the pain, and if he had died in the real world, he would have…disappeared, I suppose. It was just an odd scene that ran around my head for a while…Please review, and see you next time.

~GS


End file.
